Poll: British People Dislike Israel More Than Iran

A recent survey found that Israel is one of the most disliked countries in the world by the British people. The results come after a surge in anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom in 2014.

In a poll of 2,000 British people conducted by YouGov for the foreign policy think tank Chatham House, 35 percent answered Israel when asked, “Which of the following [countries] do you feel especially unfavorable toward?” Thirty-three percent of respondents chose Iran, and only North Korea and Russia garnering worse ratings than Israel.

The rating for Israel represents a steep deterioration from 2012, when only 17 percent of British respondents felt unfavorably about the Jewish state.

According to two surveys released last month by the U.K.-based Jewish group Campaign Against Antisemitism, nearly 60 percent of British Jews think they do not have a long-term future in Europe, while nearly half of British adults hold some type of anti-Semitic sentiment. During the Israel-Hamas war last summer, anti-Semitic incidents hit record levels in the U.K.